Tongue-Tied

 

by William R. Dodson

A reader once wrote about his mixed feelings vis a vis “… foreign nationals communicating in their own language to one another when speaking in front of Americans."

 

“This happened quite a lot … [at my company] … and the Americans always felt the Indians were extremely rude for this action or talking about them especially at times they would just explode in laughter and the Americans were the only ones not laughing since they did not know what was being said. At times I spoke to the Indians about this and their response was always that they would never talk about someone who is standing in front of them but rather they would communicate in their native language because it was easier for them to explain a problem to one another. I always gave them the benefit of the doubt since they were my friends, but I also feel that they did talk about some people in front of them without that person knowing.”

 

In every developed economy around the world the condition the reader described above is becoming the normal condition of things. Many natives find it unsettling to be around others who don’t speak the same language the native does. I suppose I am different in this way, since I always feel most comfortable not understanding a single word of what is being said around me; but then, one of the biggest reasons for that is that I spent a fair amount of my childhood in multicultural Hawaii, raised by Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese and Hawaiians, who all spoke their native languages in the homes in which they looked after me. At other times, in the large common area that formed the collective backyard of the housing units, they spoke a Pidgin English, which likely didn’t make sense to outsiders either.

 

Later, through University and beyond, I always found myself most comfortable watching and reacting to the sixty-percent of communication that usually goes unnoticed by the conscious mind: body language, gestures, vocal inflections. It’s one of the reasons I love café sitting: café’s are one of the best places in the world to people-watch, to absorb the unfettered nuances of culture and language, and to try to sync motive communications with the language joining speakers in relationship.

 

I’m of the mind that people should be able to speak their home language on the job so long as language does not interfere with productivity or relationship. Personally, I think it is the listener’s problem if they do not understand a conversation that was not meant for them in the first place. Typically, native speakers on their home turf give little regard to people who speak English as a Second Language: native speakers speak quickly, their vocabulary filled with jargon and colloquialisms. Americans in particular like to use sports metaphors and military expressions (“I’ll touch base with you after I initiate the tactical game plan.”) Really, this sort of speech is like another language even to the British, who use the English language in a way that escapes most Americans.

 

So what is the reader of the original query to do? I think he should learn some Hindi words. I also think he should become more mindful of the way he uses the English language in front of foreign nationals. Has he sanitized his English enough that any foreign national doesn’t have to grope for the meaning or the connotation or the humor in what the American has said? Or is the reader going to blithely remain comfortable in his domain and take “home advantage,” ignoring anyone else if they can’t understand what’s being said?

 

The world is changing rapidly. One of the greatest ways it is changing is in the complexion and voice of the individuals and groups that are working in bastions of monolingualism. Language snobs need to reach deep into their memories for the time when they were curious about the world and about others and dust off that curiosity, engage those coworkers who speak their home language in a place they now call home. Not only you but your workplace will become richer for the understanding.

 

William R. Dodson is Managing Director of Silk Road Advisors, L.L.C., an international markets research consultancy. He is the contributing editor on international business to the American Management Association’s (AMA) MWorld Journal of Management, and writes the weekly column “The Cultured Business”, found at www.silkrc.com and at the Global Perspectives section of the AMA’s member website. He can be reached at sradvisors@gmail.com or +1 (847)722-7817.